So, hey, it’s err been a while. I still love you and everything but I have been terribly busy. My first month as an examiner has been hard work, but I am really enjoying it. I am sure that will stop soon enough…

My desktop PC is dead dude, I mean really dead. I started getting the odd BSoD about two months ago, and assumed at the time that it was one of the two 80gb hard drives that I had in it. It was currently set up so that one was a system and programs drive, with the other holding all of my media and files. All good, so I took out one and swapped it with a 160gb drive that I had in the network case. Re-installed Windows and… It was worse, so I took out that 80gb drive and swapped it. Reinstalled Windows again and it was the same. (I had good reasons for believing that it was the hard drive.) It would appear that it is a problem with the either the PSU/motherboard/processor/graphics card/memory/a slight problem with the user. Either way I am going to have to gut it at some point soon and rebuild it.

I was planning a rebuild and upgrade later next year anyway, it may just mean that I have to do it earlier. Pity that I can’t afford it, oh well.

This does have one side effect, we have recorded most of the next podcast, and james is currently sourcing the SFX (audio effects for you non audio geeks out there), he uses real sounds, and has an admirable attitude to it. For example in a previous NSD we needed McDonalds ambience, he went and sat on his own in Maccy D’s with a coffee and an audio recording device, make of that what you will. We still have one thing to record, we did record it previously, but through my own stupidity I overwrote the file. Duh, but now we cannot record it. I will see if I can fix the PC, if not I will have to write a new opening that james can do on his own.

The other knock on effect is that I will not be able to do any FTL shows for a while, the laptop that I have is nowhere up to snuff for that kind of work. No music recording either. That’s the problem when you have lots of hobbies, but when they all revolve around one thing, when it goes you lose everything.

In non geek stuff, things are good, as I said my job is fun (mostly), I have some great friends, my cooker works (see previous entries - I think) and I am dancing, yes I am. Right now while I am typhkfgbksrhbg…

I am also getting exciting about writing again, although I haven’t actually done any, but as they always say at Christmas, it’s the thought that counts right?

Ta ra.

So, done my first week as an examiner, and I have carried out three live tests (Two passes and one fail, if you are interested). As of Monday I am doing a full day of seven tests…

Busy day today, I have to take Charlie to a karate weapons class later (which I don’t agree with, but lets not get me started on that.) then after that we are off to a fireworks display. Great stuff.

I love fireworks to look a, but I think that they are such a waste of money personally, big displays are so much better.

Money is tight at the moment as usual, but life is looking good at the moment.

See you later.

It’s been a busy month for me, I have been in Cardington, DSA (Driving Standards Agency) training centre for the last month. I am now a fully qualified driving examiner, and I start in Rotherham on Tuesday. ( I have to go to the local area centre in Newcastle on Monday)

Anyway, in other new, the next NSD is written, and we should be recording it soon. it has been difficult with me being away and james flood (More about that at james’ blog.) We will be on it soon, I promise.

I will be updating this more often from now on, in fact I will soon be putting pics from my course on here.

I have always been fascinated by history and technology, so I liked this a lot:

http://www.vincelewis.net/ekranoplan.html

It is a plane that flies on water, designed at the height of the cold war, particularly interesting are some of the designs, ingenious stuff.

In other news I have fixed the problem that I had on the radio the other day. The problem was quite simple, I was getting a bandwidth error from the playout software that I use. I assumed that it meant my internet connection had dropped in upload speed, which has happened before. That is not actually what had happened. I kept all of my mp3’s on a standalone network drive, and what was happening was that when I was transferring the files off my ethernet drive to my computer. Then I was sending it from my PC via my router off to t’net.

And therein lies the problem I was basically sending more information through my router than it could handle. I have deleted Ubuntu off my other local partition on one of my local hard drives in the main PC. I did a test on FTLFM the other day, and it all went swimmingly. Good stuff. Playlist is here, it is being updated regularly at the moment as I am busy ripping vinyl with this. And for once we are not living in rip off Britain, $39.99 on there, and I paid about £26 including shipping. It is exactly the kind of thing that I like, designed to do a job, and does it brilliantly and simply. In this day and age of multifunction devices of all sorts, simplicity seems to have been forgotten on the way. Simplicity is not a bad thing folks, when I want to read a newspaper I don’t want to spend 5 minutes booting it up, checking file links and integrity and so on, do you? I love gadgets as much as anyone though, I am not denying that.

In other news, I only have 8 shifts left at the police before I leave, hurray! Not been awful there, but I am not a fan of night shifts, oh no. Jen  had said to me that a lot of people that do  night shifts are a bit odd, and I have to say that she was right. Lovely people on  the whole, don’t get me wrong, just odd. I am now pondering though, do night shifts attract odd people, or do they become odd after doing them for a while? A study should be done I feel. FUNDING AHOY!

Ta ra lovelies, I am off to play with my girls, and do some cooking with them over the weekend, picture may appear if you are very good.

Love, hugs and kisses,

trev

I found this on the interweb somewhere. If you have the newest version of Google Earth, give this a try:

A hidden feature in version 4.2 is a flight simulator, that lets you fly over the Google Earth landscape. Admittedly it is not the best sim ever, if you are one of those people that gets excited about drag factors and so on. (If you think drag factor is something to do with wearing womens clothing, relax, you are not one of them.)

Load up Googley Earth, and then press either:

Windows - CTRL + ALT + A (Capital A)

Command / Open Apple key + Option + A (Capital again)

I haven’t had chance to try it on Linux as yet, I will later. You may have to try several times, it is not that responsive. You will know when it has worked as you will get this:

Set it how you want, a word of advice though do not choose the F16 unless you can really fly one. It is a little sensitive. Arrow keys, joystick or mouse work. I also found “G” for landing gear, “F” puts the flaps on, and Page up and Page Down change the speed.

http://earth.google.com/intl/en/userguide/v4/flightsim/index.html A basic manual and description of the keys.

http://earth.google.com/ To download Google Earth

Have fun.

And took these.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54713269@N00/

I am working 9pm - 7am tonight, and then 10pm - 7am tomorrow. I have to say that I really don’t like it.

I am starting with the DSA on the 1st of October as a driving examiner, starting with 4 weeks of training. I will be working in Rotherham, but you can’t have everything eh?

They actually called me today and asked me if I could move my start date to the 17th September, the nerve of them after I have been waiting for a job since February…

I said no, I have to give a months notice where I am working now, which I am doing next week. I cannot imagine that that will go well, but you cannot make an omelette with cracking a few heads. Or something.

Not much other news at the as I am rather tired most of the time at the moment.

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

trait snapshot:
expressive, open, self revealing, loves large parties, loud, social, outgoing, does not like social isolation, assertive, social chameleon, positive, always busy, likes to fit in, likes to stand out, enjoys leadership, brutally honest, trusting, optimistic, desires attention, dominant, aggressive, attachment prone, wants to be understood, realistic

Firstly, before I forget, if you are a North South Divide fan and on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2417272239&ref=nf

There is now a North South Divide group on Facebook, join away folks and say hello!

I now have my car, it is very nice I will post more about this when I get more chance to play with it I am sure.

Finally, I am writing the next podcast (No really) and I am pleased with what we have so far. james and I have been talking about ways to increase the amount of listeners that we get, and one idea was to send shortened versions of the NSD ‘casts to community and hospital radio stations. Also I was thinking of making some North South Divide window stickers, (not lickers) any takers? They would of course be either free or very cheap.

Love you, and leave you folks.

Without going into too much detail, I have had a pretty rough year in lots of ways, but for one particular reason, which many of you will know.

I just wanted to say thank you to people that have put up with me over the last year, I haven’t been myself for some time now, I have been shutting myself away and making myself a virtual hermit. I used work as an excuse for this, which was partly true. I think, if I am honest I needed some time to get over the hurt that I felt, and to bring myself back. I am getting back on track.

I am now getting fitter, I have lost weight, and soon I will start my new job so it is all good. Oh and I have bought a car.

I really wanted to thank the people that have helped me over the last year, there were some very low times, and I really thought several times that I would be writing my suicide note. I am not. This is very much the opposite of that, this is an anti suicide note. I am looking forward, I am feeling positive and things are getting better.

I am writing more, planning some stuff for my stand up act, and most importantly I am going to start making time for my friends.

I am sometimes a rubbish friend, as I don’t keep in touch or make plans, and for that I apologise, but I have my reasons. I have never liked imposing myself on people, or taking up their valuable time, I feel that they could be doing better things with their time. I know that sounds self pitying, thoughts like that always seem out of place when in black and white. I can see how pathetic it seems when written down.

This not about self pity though, this is about me trying to explain myself a little and set out my stall for the future. To use that wanky business phrase: A mission statement, for want of a better phrase.

The other thing that I wanted this to be was a thank you to my friends, all of whom have surprised me in one or another, and have, or offered to, help me out of some difficult times. Some of the help that people have offered has been amazing, and although I may not have seemed it, I am very thankful.

I am going to stop now, before I make myself lose my dinner, but this is a heartfelt thanks, you are all now stuck with the original, funny, awkward, moody, argumentative, opinionated trev^TM.

So you have no one to blame but yourselves.